Jon Madsen's translation seeks a way between the strictly literal, which might appear dry and archaic, and contemporary idiom, which risks trivializing. He has retranslated the Greek New Testament in such as way that something of the Spirit working in the early Church can also become part of our modern experience.

Madsen was inspired both by the sacramental language used in his work as a priest and by Emil Bock's translation of the Gospels. Like Bock, he is convinced that the living wisdom of the Gospels needs uncovering. He seeks to recover the overtones and subtleties of the ancient language to bring out the hidden depths of meaning.